The destructive force of water can be damaging to structures, cause erosion of land and also damage to boats or other craft that are caused to move by the force of the water motion as it hits other boats or structures. The problem, therefore, is not limited to shore areas where the erosive effect is potentially damaging to the shore area but can be present in marinas, boat moorage areas or to any structure that abuts or is located in the near proximity to the water.
Numerous types of apparatus have been proposed and used for the protection of a shoreline against the continual erosion occasioned by the action of waves that strike the share. Some devices have relied upon permanent structures that are installed on or near the shoreline and which are made of concrete, steel or other heavy, stable materials. Examples of such permanent structures are shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,711,598; 4,367,978 and 905,596, where the structures are constructed to be permanent as well as entrenched and affixed to the land.
While often effective, such permanent structures suffer from a lack of versatility; that is, once constructed, they are permanent structures that cannot be easily moved to other locations where such protection is needed. There are also certain locations where permanent structures are simply not appropriate, such as within marinas, harbors or boat channels. In such areas, some means to alleviate the potential harm caused by the uncontrolled movement of the water against boats or docks is needed to counter the force of the wakes left by boats and the normal motion of water.
Other means have also been proposed that are floating structures, including the use of hollow cylinders as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,011 or using a plurality of vehicle tires that form a carpet on the water (U.S. Pat. No. 4,824,286), U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,303 discloses an array of panel materials, anchored to the river or sea bed, that are used to precipitate particles out of their suspension in the water. Various barriers of a mesh material or use of ballasting blocks are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,795,099 and 4,279,536.
One energy dissipation system has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,105 by the present inventor, comprising a plurality of buoyant modules affixed together such that these specially designed modules, working together, can disrupt the wave action in order to dissipate the energy of the wave motion. The modules are designed to deflect the water motion around the modules to effectively dissipate the wave energy; such apparatus has been proven to be very effective in affording protection against the destructive motion of the water.